They began throwing their first forcestrikes even before they had reached Balkan's ranks. Kariko's smile widened as he peered through the gates, now almost completely melted, and spotted the two black-robed figures approaching the line of Guild magicians.
"Ah, you've finally decided to join us! And you've brought me a bed gift!" Kariko's voice boomed across the line of battle. He did not stop striking.
The magicians turned to see the newcomers. Gasps rippled through the line, but Sonea couldn't tell whether they were gasps of surprise or relief. Keeping her eyes on Kivara, she began battering her directly with a series of strikes from every angle.
"You are outnumbered, Kariko," Akkarin's deep voice echoed over the whoosh of strikes flying back and forth. "You will fail. Surrender now."
Kivara let out a shriek of laughter and sent Akkarin a strike of her own. But Sonea's onslaught on her shield quickly returned her focus to defending herself. She scowled at Sonea through the dust hanging in the air between them.
"High Lord, the shield!" Balkan growled as he took a step back from the force of the Ichani's strikes. Three more Warriors pulled away from the lines, exhausted, and moved out from the battle, back towards the Arena. At the same time, three more magicians ran to replace their ranks – one Alchemist and two Healers. They placed their hands on the nearest Warrior and supplied them with power. Balkan's line was down to only five Warriors and himself.
Akkarin frowned in concentration as he sent his power to strengthen their collective shield while the change-over happened. Beads of sweat shined on his brow as he concentrated on striking Kariko at the same time as strengthening the shield around the magicians.
He'll expend his power too fast if he tries to both shield and strike, Sonea thought worriedly. In that split second when her concentration wavered, Kivara smiled and whipped up the dust around her, obscuring herself from Sonea's sight. Sonea stopped striking and concentrated on maintaining a strong shield around herself as she turned her head around, straining to see through the dust. She had used this trick in the Arena before, and knew Kivara could reappear somewhere unexpected.
"Over there!" She heard one of the Alchemists yell. She looked at the direction he was pointing and spotted a swirl of dust that looked too circular to be natural. Sonea blasted power in that direction. Soon enough, the dust fell to the ground and she saw Kivara emerge behind it, snarling. She had to drop the illusion to return to shielding herself and striking back at the same time.
"This is for Dakova, slave-killer!" Kariko's gleeful scream pierced the air. Sonea heard confused yells as a Healer and a Warrior collapsed onto the ground, breaking the line. Balkan commanded, "Hold the line!"
Kivara smiled and stepped closer to Sonea. She stepped backwards as she continued striking her, then chanced a quick glance to her side. Two Alchemists rushed over from the direction of the University to fill the fallen magicians' places, but it was too late.
The collective shield wavered, then disappeared. Suddenly, Akkarin appeared out of nowhere right in between Kariko and the Guild magicians. He battered Kariko's shield fiercely from all directions. Kariko had to focus on Akkarin alone, but the moment he retaliated with strong strikes of his own, Akkarin vanished.
He reappeared to Kariko's left and resumed striking him. Sonea smiled grimly, recognising the illusion Akkarin had used. As the real Akkarin immediately battered Kariko from all angles, Balkan yelled, "retreat!"
He and the two Warriors who looked like they still had power quickly put up a much weaker shield that only covered their front. They fell back a few paces towards the University, keeping up the shield around themselves.
Balkan remained a few paces in front of his Warriors, and was still battering the Ichani with increasingly weaker strikes. It barely seemed to affect Kariko and Kivara, but it did mean they had to keep shielding and striking three opponents simultaneously.
Then Kivara smiled a feral smile. Sonea suddenly felt the ground shake underneath her. She braced herself, ready to levitate, but soon realised Kivara was opening up a chasm in the earth in front of Balkan. The earth shook and clumps of rock and grass plummeted into the gaping crack than began to form. The chasm forced Balkan to fall back even further towards the University, and his strikes faded away as he used the last of his power to shield himself during his retreat.
The gaping chasm separated Sonea, Akkarin, and the two Ichani from the rest of the Guild. It was two against two now.
"ENOUGH! Let's end this!" Kivara yelled, her smile wild with bloodlust. She and Kariko began to increase the intensity of their strikes, forcing Sonea and Akkarin to step back, ever closer to the hole in the earth behind them.
Sonea gritted her teeth and blinked away the sweat dripping down her forehead and into her eyes. She could sense that her power was decreasing fast – she felt like she was back to her natural level of power, which was much, much too little to hold off Kivara for long.
Panic seized her as Kivara suddenly broke into a run towards Sonea with a snarl, closing the gap between them. Sonea had to stop striking and focused on turning her shield into a physical barrier so that Kivara couldn't touch her. But now she was stuck in place, draining away her power.
"Akkarin! Don't you want to watch me slash your little whore's throat? It won't be long now!" Kivara cackled, focusing all of her strikes on one point in Sonea's shield. She saw Akkarin throw Kivara a strike out of the corner of her eye.
– Don't weaken your shield! I'm coming! Akkarin sent Sonea through their blood gem.
– No! Keep striking Kariko! Sonea sent back.
An image of what Akkarin was seeing flash into her mind – herself, shaking with the effort of holding her shield, as Kivara stood inches away from her. A wave of Akkarin's terror at the sight washed over her mind, projected through the gem.
She saw his black-robed figure break into a run out of the corner of her eye, heading in her direction. Then pain – a pain that knocked the wind out of her came through the blood gem, breaking her concentration.
"NO!" Sonea yelled as she saw the force of Kariko's strike lift Akkarin off the ground. He was slammed back down a few paces away from her, and lay still where he was.
A fiery rage bubbled up within Sonea. With a scream, she let her shield fall and re-channeled all of its power into one, single, razor-sharp forcestrike aimed at Kivara's heart.
She heard her gasp, and her strikes stopped. Without thinking about the fact that she was completely shieldless, in that instant, Sonea closed the gap between them in two leaps. Instinctively, her hand unsheathed the dagger at her waist at the same time. She threw her entire weight onto Kivara and they both fell to the ground.
Kivara's eyes widened in horror as she realised what was to come in a split second. But before she could open her mouth and scream, Sonea had slashed the Sachakan blade across her neck and clamped her hand onto the gash. The light went out of the Ichani's eyes as Sonea felt the rush of her magic enter her body.
Her blood pounding in her ears, her eyes full of tears and sweat, Sonea turned back to where Akkarin had fallen. There was a ringing in her ears and her sight was blurred, but she ran across the grass in the direction of the black shape on the ground.
"AKKARIN!" Someone screamed. Sonea vaguely realised it was her own voice. She dropped to her knees by his unmoving form. But in that moment, she felt an iron grip on her hair, almost yanking it out of her scalp. She screamed as the hand pulled her up by her hair, and found herself face to face with Kariko, his mouth twisted into an ugly snarl.
"Your precious High Lord is dead, and you are next!" He spat at her. He was so close to her face that Sonea could smell his breath.
Kariko suddenly doubled up with a yell of pain and let go of Sonea's hair. Akkarin's hand was outstretched as he lay on the ground. He had struck Kariko, but had no power left to shield.
Everything happened in an instant. With Kariko distracted, Sonea threw herself towards Akkarin and grasped his arm. She sent her senses into his body and rushed some of her own power into him. Then she felt a force hit her back, and a sharp, searing pain spread across her shoulders and chest. She plunged headfirst towards the ground.
"No… no…" There was something obscuring her sight. Things were fading to black. Blearily, Sonea tried to push herself upright with her arms but an excruciating pain shot through her upper back. Her lungs couldn't seem to draw in enough air.
Akkarin. Where is Akkarin? He wasn't on the floor anymore. One more effort to raise herself up sent a wracking cough through her chest. Something dribbled out of her mouth.
Sonea blinked, her head spinning, as she looked down at the grass in front of her. It was stained with blood, gurgling up from her own mouth. With the last of her strength, she turned her head to look behind her.
The last thing she saw before darkness swallowed her was the sight of Kariko on his knees, rage in his face. Akkarin stood above him, his dark eyes burning with a terrible, cold fire, as he slashed Kariko's throat and drained his power. Sonea smiled through her bloodied lips. As the last of her strength left her, her head hit the grass.
—-
"Sonea!" Cery cried out. He made to leap out from behind the bushes they were in, then fell headlong onto the floor as Savara grasped his ankle. "Let me go! I don't care if they see me!"
"Wait! Wait," Savara whispered heatedly. Cery was about to push her off him when both of them jumped at a heart-wrenching snarl that reached their ears from the scene of the battle.
It was Akkarin, kneeling next to Sonea. He was holding onto her, but looked too exhausted to move. Savara's brows knitted together in emotion at the sight of them, then her face grew determined. She wrenched off the three gems around her neck and stuffed them into Cery's hand. "Go! Go to him."
Cery gripped the three black gems tightly in his sweaty palms and stumbled back to his feet, running as fast as he could across the Guild lawn towards the two figures in the distance. He stopped in front of the chasm that the Ichani had opened on the ground. It was too far to leap. Cery's heart beat wildly and he yelled a curse in the air in panic and frustration.
Suddenly, he almost lost his footing. He looked down to see a disc of power growing beneath his feet. He looked back to see Savara's eyes locked onto him in concentration. Recognising the levitation magic the High Lord had used on him and Gol before, Cery braced himself as Savara's magic floated him up a few inches and safely across the gaping abyss in front of him.
As soon as his feet touched the grass on the other side, he ran flat out again, barely drawing breath. He fell to his knees as he approached Akkarin and flung the gems into his hands. "Savara's… power… use it…" he wheezed. He looked down in horror at Sonea. The hilt of a Sachakan blade was sticking out of her back. Her eyes were closed and her face was white as a sheet. Blood kept bubbling up to her lips.
Akkarin's dark eyes were wild with desperation. He rolled Sonea onto her front. "Hold her!" He shouted at Cery, and Cery grasped Sonea's shoulders to steady her.
Akkarin's hand was shaking as he grasped the hilt of the dagger, then yanked it out of her back in one movement. He immediately pressed his hand onto the wound, and held on tightly to the three black gems with his other hand.
Moments passed, agonisingly slowly. Both men were panting for breath. Akkarin closed his eyes and sent his senses into Sonea's body. For one horrifying second, he could sense nothing. Then he felt it. A small, pulsing amount of power, deep within her. Tears cut a trail down Akkarin's face as he drew the power in Savara's gems into himself and immediately channelled it through his other hand, into Sonea's wound.
He was almost exhausted and there was too much healing needed. The stab would have proven fatal in the next few seconds if he hadn't had the gems' power. It flowed and flowed through him and into Sonea. Her lung was punctured. He stopped the loss of blood, then tried to seal the hole in her lungs, hoping against hope that he was doing this right. One gem, then the next, and finally the third one grew dull, emptied of all the power they had.
"Out of my way!"
Cery looked up to see an older woman in green robes rush to their side. She knelt down beside Sonea and placed a hand on her wound. "I have her. I have her, my boy." Cery thought she was speaking to him, but the woman was addressing the High Lord. Cery saw more green-robed magicians rushing towards them in the distance.
Akkarin's chest heaved up and down as he drew in ragged breaths. He tried rising to his feet, but staggered and fell back down to his knees in exhaustion. His pale hand gripped Sonea's as if he would never let go.